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Chris Mason is Professor of Regenerative Medicine Bioprocessing in the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, University College London working on the clinical translation and commercialization of cell and gene therapies. He has a multidisciplinary track record spanning discovery, clinical medicine, bioprocessing, regulation, healthcare economics, reimbursement and business. He holds a Clinical Sciences degree from Imperial College London, an MD from the United Medical & Dental Schools of Guy’s & St. Thomas’s Hospitals (now King’s College London) and a PhD in tissue-engineering bioprocessing from University College London. Chris specialized in surgery and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons both of England and in Ireland. Current appointments include; Chair of the BioIndustry Association (BIA) Regenerative Medicine & Cell Therapy Advisory Committee, Senior Editor of "Regenerative Medicine" journal, Co-founder and CEO of the London Regenerative Medicine Network, Trustee of the UK Stem Cell Foundation and of the British Neurological Research Trust and Co-Chair of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine Cell Therapy Section. He sits on a number of national funding committees including BIRAX (Britain-Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership), Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Networks of Centres of Excellence of Canada (NCE).

Chris is on many national and international committees, working groups and initiatives related to the academic, clinical and commercial advancement of cell therapy including; Regenerative Medicine Expert Group (UK government policy advisory group), UK-Israel Science Council, International Expert Advisory Panel of the Canadian Stem Cell Foundation, ISSCR Industry Committee, ARM Communication & Education and Science & Technology Committees, ISCT Commercialization Committee, and United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Monographs - Biologics & Biotechnology Expert Committee. He is on the Advisory Panel of the Cell Therapy Catapult, Strategic Advisory Board of the Canadian Centre for the Commercialisation of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) and also advises a number of industry organisations including big pharma. Chris is a general spokesperson for the sector including frequent newspaper, radio and TV interviews plus social media via Twitter @Prof_ChrisMason.

Board Representation

Anthony Atala, MD

Director, Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University and W.H. Boyce Professor and Chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Dr. Atala is a practicing surgeon and world-leading researcher in regenerative medicine. His current work focuses on growing new human cells, tissues and organs. He works with several journals in various roles including: Editor-in-Chief of "Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy", and "Therapeutic Advances in Urology"; as Associate Editor of "Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine", "Journal of Rejuvenation Research", "Nanotechnology in Engineering and Medicine", "Gene Therapy and Regulation" and "Current Reviews in Urology". He is the editor of 8 books, including "Methods of Tissue Engineering", "Principles of Regenerative Medicine", and "Minimally Invasive Urology", and has published more than 250 journal articles and has applied for or received over 200 national and international patents.

Dr. Atala is a recipient of the US Congress funded Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, bestowed on a living American currently working on a discovery that will significantly affect society, and the Gold Cystoscope Award for advances in his field. Dr. Atala was named by Scientific American as "Medical Treatments Leader of the Year". In 2006, he was named by Fast Company magazine as one of 50 people who “will change how we work and live over the next 10 years", his work was listed as Discover Magazine's Number 1 Top Science Story of the Year, and as Time Magazine’s top 10 medical breakthroughs of the year (2007). A Time Magazine poll ranked Dr. Atala as the 56th most influential person of the year (2007). Esquire Magazine named Dr. Atala one of the 75 most influential persons of the 21st century (2008). Dr. Atala has led or served several national professional and government committees, including the NIH working group on Cells and Developmental Biology, and the National Institutes of Health Bioengineering Consortium. He is currently an NIH “Quantum Grant” awardee. The Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative medicine has a team of over 160 physicians and researchers.

Dr. Keller is the Director of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine which was established in 2003. It is a world-renowned centre for stem cell biology and regenerative medicine and a world-class stem cell research facility. Dr. Keller’s is the first lab to successfully differentiate human embryonic stem (ES) cells into cardiac cell lineages. This technology has been successfully applied to human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and is to be made available to create patient specific cardiac cell lines. As well as being the Director of the McEwen Center for Regenerative Medicine he is also a Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Medical Biophysics. Dr. Keller holds the position of Senior Scientist of the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto. He received his PhD at the University of Alberta in immunology. Dr. Keller’s cuirrent areas of research include: lineage specific differentiation of ES cells in culture, development of the hematopoietic, vascular, and cardiac lineages from ES cells, commitment of ES cells to endoderm-derived lineages, and growth and differentiation of human ES cells. Dr. Keller is a key collaborator with many scientists and research teams across Canada and internationally. Current collaborations include those with Dr. Husain at University Health Network in Toronto, in the characterization of ES cell-derived cardiomyocytes and collaboration with Dr. Sherman from Columbia University, NY, in the analysis of the functional potential of human ES cell-derived cardiomyocytes in a large animal model. Dr. Keller has several current on-going sources of grant funding from NIH and CIHR. He has contributed to well over 100 scientific publications and has extensive experience in collaborative research.